…but all that said, I do have a lot of disagreements with that HeroicHomosex site. The original concept of challenging gay men to question the “casual vanilla-ness” of anal sex was an innovative and overdue approach to the fight against HIV, but the site owner Bill Weintraub chose to turn it into something vaguely cultish, and heaps abuse on people who disagree with him.

(And don’t even get me started on the unaffiliated “g0ys” site, which has all of Weintraub’s bad points minus his gay-history knowledge and overall erudition.)

Among MSMs who don’t do IV drugs, non-anal modes of sexual transmission (read: fellatio) probably account for less than 5% of all HIV cases. Mind you, some researchers suspect that fellatio accounts for less than 1% of male-to-male HIV transmissions, and that anal sex accounts for essentially ALL the other cases.

So, depending on which estimates are correct, perhaps 19 out of 20 gay men who’ve died from AIDS would be alive and uninfected if not for the contribution of anal sex. Yet for most of the course of the epidemic, the gay male community has gone on happily promoting anal sex as “vanilla,” and spilling the proverbial oceans of ink in sex-advice columns teaching the Gospel Of Bottoming to inexperienced gay men who weren’t totally sold yet on the idea of having something the size of a penis going up their wazoos. (NB: HIV transmission during anal sex is nearly always top-to-bottom, so “Not Teaching An Entire New Generation Of Gay Men How To Bottom” perhaps should have been pretty near the top of the priority list for gay community responses to the epidemic — but, of course, it wasn’t.)

At any rate, the “weird rampage” Mark F. speaks of is largely a post-2000 development that came after gay activist Bill Weintraub (who’d lost his lover of 13 years to AIDS) started getting tired of news stories about how the utterly commonsensical taboo against anal barebacking was beginning to erode as HAART chemotherapy took a lot of the scariness out of HIV infection.

So, apart from the fact that the anti-anal “rampage” is a drop in the cultural bucket against an ocean of pro-anal affirmation that gay men provide to each other — I mean, how many gay pr0n vids don’t include ANY f*cking? — this “rampage” was also merely a thinking-outside-the-box response to the observable problem of gay men acting like reckless dipsh*ts with each other’s health ALL OVER AGAIN.

The anus is an orifice of exit. Yeah, so what? So is the vagina. All sorts of nasty stuff exit from that orifice but str8 men are obsessed with it and think it’s a dandy place to park their penises.

Well as my granny used to say, “to each his own said the old lady as she kissed the cow.”

]]>By: Richard Rushhttp://www.boxturtlebulletin.com/2011/03/08/31201#comment-90471
Thu, 10 Mar 2011 15:47:42 +0000http://www.boxturtlebulletin.com/?p=31201#comment-90471Demeaning all gay guys was a goal,
and a gal named Kovar had a role.
She declared that gayness
is about the anus.
And she’s now well known as an assho1e.
]]>By: Mark F.http://www.boxturtlebulletin.com/2011/03/08/31201#comment-90446
Wed, 09 Mar 2011 22:46:15 +0000http://www.boxturtlebulletin.com/?p=31201#comment-90446Actually, there is also a weird group of gay men on a rampage against anal sex. See:

]]>By: Dr. Scotthttp://www.boxturtlebulletin.com/2011/03/08/31201#comment-90424
Wed, 09 Mar 2011 14:37:20 +0000http://www.boxturtlebulletin.com/?p=31201#comment-90424Isn’t it illuminating that all of the people who stand up to oppose marriage equality make such outrageous statements, and pose such patently ridiculous arguments?

That’s because there is no reasonable, rational argument to be made from their position. LGBT people pay the same taxes and deserve the same protections and benefits as everyone else.

To deny that is prejudice, discrimination, and bigotry. I don’t care what your religious beliefs are–religious beliefs are not a license to oppress people with whom you disagree.

]]>By: BlackDoghttp://www.boxturtlebulletin.com/2011/03/08/31201#comment-90422
Wed, 09 Mar 2011 14:22:05 +0000http://www.boxturtlebulletin.com/?p=31201#comment-90422What the hell is such a big deal about anal sex to some of these people? If you don’t like it, don’t do it!

Why is it not enough to not engage in something they don’t like or don’t want to try, they have to try and control other people’s lives too?

I’d bet money she can’t control her own life why the f*ck is she tryin to control other people’s?

]]>By: Richard Rushhttp://www.boxturtlebulletin.com/2011/03/08/31201#comment-90377
Wed, 09 Mar 2011 00:13:50 +0000http://www.boxturtlebulletin.com/?p=31201#comment-90377Ben’s comment reminds me of why I loath Dan Savage’s definition of Santorum, and the website devoted to it. It actually aids our opponent’s efforts to keep people focused exclusively on sexual mechanics, and not on the human affection and love. And now, recently there has been another wave of publicity for it. I wish it would stop, and that the website would be removed.

I think Dan Savage has a good mind, and usually has helpful inciteful things to say. But “Santorum” was not one of them.

]]>By: Ben in Oaklandhttp://www.boxturtlebulletin.com/2011/03/08/31201#comment-90376
Tue, 08 Mar 2011 23:50:09 +0000http://www.boxturtlebulletin.com/?p=31201#comment-90376you must realize that when they go on and on about this, they’re not trying to convince anybody about facts.

they talk about “teaching homosexuality” quite deliberately, simply because it is scarier and far less accurate than the reality. But it’s designed to strike fear and appeal not to the intelligent people, but the ones who are too lazy to think but not too lazy not to vote.